Joe Mull – Employalty and BossBetter Speaker

HR Brew: ‘Fear of the rare bad apple’ can damage employee trust and morale

When companies use software that counts keystrokes or monitors attendance, Mull said it can damage employee trust and morale. Leaders who use these tools are sometimes “driven by fear of the rare bad apple,” when their workforce largely wants to do good work. Companies that treat employees as trustworthy and reliable have more loyal, committed employees.

HR Brew: As Amazon mandates a full-time RTO, experts share how HR can support employees

CEO Andy Jassy announced on Monday that Amazon’s nearly 350,000 corporate employees will be required to work in the office five days a week, effective Jan. 2.  “It’s puzzling that [Amazon] would choose to move from essentially the most popular work arrangement to the least,” Joe Mull, keynote speaker and author, told HR Brew.

In The News…

CBS - KDKA: Time of year when quality workers look for a better job

As 2023 draws to a close, human resource experts say this is the time of year when many employees reevaluate their job status. According to Joe Mull, "We're experiencing still record levels of job turnover in the labor market. Last year, we had 50 million Americans who voluntarily quit their jobs and went looking for an upgrade."

People Management: What will it take to keep your best employees in 2024?

What can HR professionals do to keep top talent in the new year? Joe Mull has spent nearly 20 years speaking and writing about how leaders cultivate commitment at work. Recently, he analysed more than 200 studies and articles on retention and turnover to identify what leads workers to join an organisation, stay long term and do great work.

FOX Business: The holiday work party: has the time come to ditch it?

The holiday season tends to be one of the most stressful times of the year for people in general, and when employers add things to the calendar that are above and beyond what normally occupies employees' time, they just make it more stressful for people. "If we're being honest about what most employees really want in their life, during December, it's less stress," Mull told FOX Business.

Entrepreneur: Employees Not Grateful for Stingy Vacation Policies — the Breaking Point Is Near

A functioning society with optimal mental health requires periods of rest and restoration. What's at stake if the U.S. doesn't catch up? According to Mull, a lot: American employers can expect continuing high levels of burnout (77% of U.S. professionals have experienced burnout at their current job, per a Deloitte survey) and will struggle to attract and retain top talent.

FastCompany: ‘Everyone is quitting’ and 2 other myths about jobs that need to end

When we insist that we can’t find good people or that no one wants to work, we place the blame for hiring challenges on workers instead of looking in the mirror. In this article, Joe Mull debunks three common workplace myths and shares the root of these challenges: a Great Boss shortage.

WUSA9: How to deal with a bad boss

In this interview for Boss’s Day, author, speaker, and podcast host, Joe Mull, shares how to deal with a bad boss. Joe also shares what makes a great boss, tips on how to become a better leader, and tools that can help leaders create the conditions at work that help their employees to thrive.

HR-Brew: How HR pros can repair a culture that has taken a toxic turn

HR Brew spoke with workplace experts about how HR pros can mend a culture that’s taken a toxic turn. Joe Mull says HR pros first need to own their mistakes and apologize to employees. They should also identify how the environment turned toxic in the first place, he said, adding that it’s often because “leaders are treating people as a commodity” and “not treating people humanely.”

WPXI: Our Region's Business - Employalty

In this interview, Joe Mull, shares the effects of the pandemic on the current workforce and how things have changed post-Covid. These changes have affected how employers view and relate to their employees, how they think about work, and how to identify what is important to their employees today.

Forbes: Leading In The Age Of Remote Work: Key Factors For Corporate Success

This article is an overview of flexible remote work considerations for corporate success in 2023.. According to Joe Mull, there’s a big difference between being flexible and the true autonomy people crave. “It is this ability to respond in real-time to both unexpected life developments and personal schedule preferences that truly determines whether an employee experiences flexibility."

KNX News: If You Want to Keep Your Best Workers, Don't Promote Them

KNX In Depth's Rob Archer and Larry Perel talk about why promoting workers can increase the chance of them leaving. JIn this segment, Joe shares the reasons that employees and managers leave their organizations within the first six months and beyond and what you can do to keep them in their roles.

The Wall Street Journal: Monitoring Employee Productivity: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Productivity monitoring tools come in two flavors: Tools that are designed to help employees work more efficiently and effectively, and tools that are accountability systems that monitor time and activities to prove that employees are working. Mull says organizations whose employees enjoy high amounts of trust from their leaders outperform companies whose employees say they don’t feel trusted.

HR Daily Advisor: The 3 Factors That Make-or-Break Employee Commitment

After analyzing more than 200 studies and articles on employee turnover, testing findings with clients and audiences, and synthesizing those findings into a simple framework and a new book, Joe had a one-sentence answer to the question of “Where does commitment come from at work?”. Read how Ideal Job, Meaningful Work, and Great Boss combine to create employee commitment and retention.

StrategicCHRO360: The 3 Factors Of ‘Employalty’

What leads someone to join a team, put forth maximum effort on the job, care deeply about the work and stay with an organization over time? Commitment appears when employees get to do their Ideal Job, doing Meaningful Work, for a Great Boss. In this excerpt from the new book Employalty, Joe Mull shares the trifecta of factors needed for you to attract and retain top talent.

Yahoo News: Sunday Business Page: Employalty

In this week's edition of the Yahoo! News Sunday Business Page, Jon Delano with KDKA Pittsburgh sits down with Pittsburgh native and author of the new book "Employalty" Joe Mull. Joe shares how Employalty describes the commitment employers make to a more humane employee experience because that is what triggers commitment at work.

The Driller: Employee Commitment: Boost Revenue, Retention and Reputation

The new age of work has pushed many drilling companies toward more creative ways to attract and retain their top employees. Committed, loyal employees dream about these things, so how do we provide them? Let’s get into some ideas, which I learned from the excellent book “Employalty: How to Ignite Commitment and Keep Top Talent in the New Age of Work” by author Joe Mull.

VN Explorer: Why Do Employees Prefer Flexible Work Arrangements?

According to Joe Mull, HR expert and author of “Employalty,” even if you’ve had a negative experience with an employer, you should try to keep any online commentary positive. Besides, if a potential employer sees you bashing your old company publicly, they’ll assume you’d do the same to them if things don’t work out. As a general rule, complain privately, praise publicly,” Mull told Allwork.Space.

Resort Trades: Buddy to Boss: Ensuring the New Manager’s Success

Employers take pride in promoting from within but too often, newly appointed managers lack the skills to motivate subordinates. “All too often, individuals promoted into leadership roles are selected for their technical expertise or their years of experience,” said Joe Mull. “The thinking is that if they’ve been very good in a specific job they’ll also be good at training others to do that job.”

AllWork: How To Post On Social Media About Losing Your Job

According to Joe Mull, HR expert and author of “Employalty,” even if you’ve had a negative experience with an employer, you should try to keep any online commentary positive. Besides, if a potential employer sees you bashing your old company publicly, they’ll assume you’d do the same to them if things don’t work out. As a general rule, complain privately, praise publicly,” Mull told Allwork.Space.

BuiltIn: Why We Must Kill the Myth of the Lazy Worker

Years of dehumanization, in which companies regard employees as capital rather than people, have led to the persistence of a degrading, misinformed set of beliefs called the Myth of Lazy. If you want the highest level of commitment from your workforce, you must first and consistently commit to them, not just as employees but as human beings.

Business News Daily: Why Do Employees Prefer Flexible Work Arrangements?

According to Joe Mull, what many workers crave more than just a hybrid or work-from-home schedule is the freedom to figure out for themselves how, when and where to work. “It is this ability to respond in real-time to both unexpected life developments and personal schedule preferences that truly determines whether an employee experiences flexibility.”

SHRM: Is a Companywide Vacation Right for Your Organization?

You wouldn't think that vacations would be a hard sell in today's stressful workplace. Yet a management expert finds only 44 percent of working Americans take advantage of all their earned time off. Fear of falling behind at work is the most cited explanation, said Joe Mull,. Simply allotting more vacation days doesn't solve the problem if employees are reluctant to use them.

HR DAILY ADVISOR: The Rise of the 4-Day Workweek

Research shows that even shaving an hour or 2 off the standard 40-hour workweek can have huge benefits, both at work and at home. According to Joe Mull, a manageable workload isn’t just about sticking to a 40-hour workweek or implementing a shorter one. It also requires us to manage the workload employees carry during their allotted work time.

THE UNSPOKEN RULES OF LEADERSHIP: The Power of Purpose in the War for Talent

Consumers nowadays are much more likely to spend their money on companies, products, or brands that they see as having a strong purpose. The younger generations of employees say that they would take a pay cut to work for a company that is socially responsible. In this excerpt from “Employalty”, Joe Mull shares the importance of purpose and how it can be used to create a destination workforce.

HIVE: What Are SMART KPIs? Understanding The Importance Of Value-Driven Goals

Making the right kind of key performance indicator (KPI) that generates realistic targets for your team is a balancing act for managers – they’ve got to keep their employees engaged, and their bosses reassured that work is getting done in the most well-organized way possible. But building KPIs is about more than just the task at hand, according to Joe Mull, workplace commitment expert and author .

THE HR DIRECTOR: How to Manage Workload Effectively

Workers are logging more hours and shouldering heavier workloads than ever before. In many jobs, the expectation of what one person can reliably accomplish or manage in their role has become unreasonable. In this article, Joe Mull shares strategies for balancing workload, a key component of creating an ideal job.

CEOWORLD MAGAZINE: Why Employers Should Grant More Flexibility to Increase Quality of Work

Joe Mull shares: Where workplaces grant employees more flexibility, they can expect a greater degree of satisfaction, fulfillment, and engagement at work. When team members are granted more control over their schedules, they take more ownership of their work and perform with greater care and attention.

THE BUSINESS JOURNALS: Employers that made the switch are happy with four-day workweeks

The four-day workweek is finding fans among employers and employees alike, but experts say it faces some obstacles in American workplaces.

US NEWS: How to Keep Working Remotely Full Time

According to recent survey findings, 64% of the global workforce said they would consider looking for a new job if their employer wanted them back in the office full time. Joe Mull recommends that you “work together with your team or department to advocate for WFH arrangements as a group”, as this “raises the stakes for the employer, who will likely not want to disaffect large groups of people.”

FORAGE: What is Upskilling?

According to Joe Mull, , upskilling is both a talent acquisition and retention strategy. “Helping employees who already know the organization add to their skill set typically comes with lower costs than attempting to recruit and onboard new talent. Upskilling programs help employers demonstrate that joining the organization can lead to an evolving career path.”

FOX: Study finds employees clamor for 4-day work week

Studies have shown that employees can accomplish the same work, in less time, and often with better results. Joe Mull, HR thought leader, speaker and author of "Employalty: How to Ignite Commitment and Keep Top Talent in the New Age of Work," talks about a workplace study that found businesses were more profitable and productive when they shifted their employees to a 4-day work week.

CBS KMVT: Author says companies should move to 4-day work weeks

Author Joe Mull said recent research has found that some companies have piloted four-day work weeks and found that there was no lack of productivity and employees could keep their same salary. Mull says that data also shows that in some cases productivity increased with a switch to a four-day work week and an increase in overall health with lowered stress and burn-out.

HEALTHLINE: How 4-Day Workweeks Can Improve Well-Being and Boost Productivity

Why is a shorter workweek appealing to workers? Joe Mull told Healthline, “After years of cutbacks or ‘right-sizing’ — where employers foisted the work of two or three people onto individuals — we’re trending in the other direction. Organizations that want to find and keep devoted employees recognize they must reimagine work in ways that don’t negatively impact quality of life for those they hire.”

UNLEASH: Bonuses vs Pay Rises - How to reward performance

Joe Mull cautions “No matter how they spin it, any time an organization eliminates an established bonus structure, it will be experienced by employees as a pay cut” – this is because these bonuses are “indistinguishable from other parts of total compensation”. A move like Snap’s could have “swift and unintended impacts to an employer”.

FORBES: Navy Federal Credit Union Exec Connects Employee Engagement To Brand Love

“Workers are rejecting persistent cultures of overwork, low pay, and bad bosses in favor of emerging jobs that provide a better quality of life. These employers are innovating in areas that enhance quality of life for employees. They are trying initiatives like 4-day work weeks, flexible work arrangements, better training for leaders, manageable workloads, and a new commitment to DEIB initiatives.”

NEWSWEEK: More Than A Third of Americans Are 'Quiet Quitting'

Joe Mull told Newsweek that in some respects, quiet quitting has come to mean "a kind of healthy boundary-setting." He said: "Overworked employees everywhere are tired of their jobs encroaching on every corner of their lives" and quiet quitting has meant no longer engaging in work after hours, saying "no" to more things and generally prioritizing more work-life balance.

FORTUNE: Bosses should take these 7 steps to get teams motivated for the new year

Something happens to teams after the Thanksgiving break. Most bosses recognize it as a holiday slump. “Everything slows down and hurries up at the same time,” says Joe Mull, host of the Boss Better Now podcast. “People are distracted and we get a little bit of senioritis at the end of the year, right as the holidays come upon us.”

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY: Take This Job and Love It: New Business & Personal Finance Books

Leadership educator Joe Mull describes the enterprise-level changes—beyond necessities like pay raises and fripperies like foosball tables—needed to retain employees. He suggests that building jobs around people is more effective in making them happy than squishing people into predetermined jobs. His message is that your employees are people; be good to them and they’ll be good to you.

NEWSWEEK: Internet overjoyed as boss forcing employee to work Thanksgiving backfires

Joe Mull, an author and the host of the Boss Better Now podcast and founder of the BossBetter Leadership Academy, told Newsweek the employer's actions in the post—canceling his employee's vacation at the last minute and "mandating work"—are one example of the "entrenched, normalized inhumane treatment" that has been "present in workplaces for years and that workers are rejecting in droves."

YAHOO FINANCE: For Boss' Day, a Gift Isn't Necessary. But Don't Skip It

Joe Mull released guidance on what kind of gift, if any, is appropriate to give for Boss' Day and how to approach the holiday if there is tension between a manager and supervisor. Mull says that giving a gift isn't necessary, but, if employees want to participate, they should choose something personal. "A favorite coffee, snack, or lotion shows that you are paying attention to who they are as a person."

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES: Why Americans Are Still Quitting Their Jobs

Joe Mull, the author of "Employalty: How to Ignite Commitment and Keep Top Talent in the New Age of Work", questions the very existence of the Great Resignation. "There's only been a handful of months in the last two decades where unemployment was lower than it is. The percentage of prime-age workers participating in the workforce is higher right now than it was ten years ago," he told IBT.

ABC: Author and speaker Joe Mull breaks down what a staffing shortage really means

Author and speaker Joe Mull shares tips and insights about the job market and finding good employees.

FORBES: Burnout and Retention: Hint Cornhole Is Not The Solution

Business leaders, thought leaders, academics, and industry experts were interviewed about burnout and retention to gain a firm understanding of what smart business leaders are doing to address employee burnout. Hint - it’s not implementing Friday Fun Day or happy hour! As Joe Mull says, “Do you know what often feels better than happy hour? The boss who says, ‘look what we accomplished’.”

SHRM: New ‘Can’t-Miss’ Podcasts That Managers Need to Follow in 2021

The BossBetter Now podcast tackles 'big boss' questions, provides scripts for better conversations, helps build camaraderie, and more. The show puts people at the center of everything leaders do, treats being a boss as a noble pursuit, and celebrates boss 'heroes'—those management leaders who strive daily to get better and support their teams.